Fade Out (13 page)

‘Yes – if the President orders me to.'

‘He will,' said Fraser. ‘But just remember one thing – it wasn't
my
idea.'

It wasn't until thirty-six hours after the mysterious crash of the helicopter that the Air Force at Glasgow finally put together the pieces of the puzzle. Two Air Force medics sent to check up on Volkert found that his ultraviolet radiation burns were several degrees lighter than those sustained by the two pilots. They took a blood sample to check the increase in inorganic phosphorus and calcium, and the Air Force major who had accompanied them formally cautioned Volkert to say nothing about the incident – especially to any member of the press.

The most important piece of the jigsaw was acquired accidentally. On its way back to Glasgow AFB the aircraft recovery truck stopped at Broken Mill to let one of the crewmen buy some cigarettes at Annie's Mercantile. A couple of kids inside the store asked him if he'd come to dig up the ‘flying saucer'. He told them that it had been a plane – and that he and the others had just come to recover the body of the pilot.

Glasgow AFB sent a routine UFO sighting report to the Air Technical Center at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, and added the other information they had collected. The message, timed at 11:47 Central Standard Time, triggered off a covert chain reaction that didn't stop until it reached the Oval Room in the White House.

The President asked Connors to follow up the sighting report and find out just what had happened on Crow Ridge.

It took Connors a few days to get the information
together without blowing the whole thing wide open, but by Wednesday it looked as if they were in business.

The President studied the aerial photograph of Crow Ridge, then looked up at Connors, Clayson and Wedderkind.

‘Is it this crater that is causing the trouble?'

‘Yes,' said Wedderkind. ‘There appears to be a strong alternating magnetic field around it with an estimated radius of about a quarter of a mile.'

‘And was it this that caused the helicopter to crash?'

‘We think so,' said Connors. ‘The Air Force found that the helicopter's electrical system was completely burned out. Arnold thinks it was caused by a sudden, terrific surge in the current going through the wires. There must have been an instantaneous overload on the circuit. The fuses blew – wham! The pilot lost control.'

‘And the patrolman's car?'

‘The field cut the current to the spark plugs,' said Wedderkind.

‘It also knocked out the tow truck that went to pick it up and the Crash and Rescue truck the Air Force sent to pick up the pieces,' said Connors. ‘They all stalled more or less in the same place.'

‘And an alternating magnetic field is what causes this?'

‘It's one way of doing it,' said Wedderkind. ‘During severe electrical storms you get an induction of current in overhead power lines which sometimes causes a breakdown.'

General Clayson pulled out a report. ‘The CIA had one of their aircraft equipped for geophysical surveys overfly the area with a magnetometer. It registered a disturbance in the Earth's magnetic field in the area immediately around the crater.'

He placed a coloured photograph in front of the President. ‘We also covered it on infrared film. The crater is
that hot spot in the middle. It's about twenty degrees hotter than the rest of the plateau.'

‘And you're sure this heat wasn't generated by the impact of something hitting the ground?'

‘No, it's not an impact crater. The trees have been smashed down around it, but Arnold thinks the hole has been caused by something burrowing into the ground.'

‘What about this ultraviolet radiation that burned the pilots?' asked the President.

‘That's disappeared,' said Wedderkind. ‘But it explains why the Air Force helicopter changed colour – the pigments in the paint reacted to the radiation. It also explains why we couldn't photograph it in orbit. The really interesting thing is this – the burns on the pilots were caused by far ultraviolet. The Deputy Sheriffs burns were less severe – and they were caused by
near
ultraviolet rays. The wavelengths were
longer
– nearer those of visible light. It looks as if Crusoe is changing from something we can't see into something we can.'

The President glanced at the others, then came back to Wedderkind. ‘Why has he dug himself in?'

Wedderkind shrugged. ‘I don't know. He went to a lot of trouble to get down under cover of the fade-out. Maybe he feels as nervous as we do.'

‘What about this magnetic field, Arnold?' asked Connors. ‘Radar and radio-wave static is one thing, but if he's going to pull the plug on all our electrical systems – I mean, that's big trouble, right?'

‘Yes,' said the President. ‘I wouldn't like to think that that was going to spread.'

Arnold's eyebrows shot up along with his blink rate. ‘Could I just clarify one aspect of this discussion?'

‘Go ahead, Arnold.' It was the President's turn to wave a palm.

‘I'm getting the impression that everything seems to be
my
fault.'

‘Nobody's blaming you, Arnold. I just want to convey my concern about what has happened, and the dangers that could be facing us. Just what they are and how you deal with them is your problem.'

The President's eyes took in the three of them. ‘I want that area isolated with maximum security and minimum publicity. Arnold, your boys will be providing the brainpower and scientific know-how. Chuck, I'm counting on you to put in the manpower and the hardware.'

General Clayson nodded.

‘These men will have to be hand picked, Chuck. We may get a situation where they need to be highly motivated – above and beyond the call of duty.'

‘We'll be able to handle that, sir.'

‘Pick a good man, Chuck. I want someone strong in there on the ground.' The President waved at Connors. ‘I want Bob to stay in charge of the whole operation. He will also have letters of authority giving him full powers to mobilize all local military and civilian personnel, establishments, state organizations and resources to deal with any sudden field emergency arising out of this specific situation.'

The President smiled at Connors. ‘That doesn't mean the three of you can go out and take over the whole country.'

‘Okay,' said Connors. ‘But if you decide not to run again, drop us a line.'

‘You drop
me
a line,' said the President. ‘From Montana.' He got up from his desk. It was a signal that the meeting was at an end.

As Connors ushered the others out of the door, the President called him back.

‘Do you think we ought to tell the Russians about Crow Ridge?'

‘That option's still open to us,' said Connors. ‘But right now, there's not a lot we can tell them.'

‘No…'

‘I think we all got the impression that you thought we ought to sit on the news for a while.'

‘Yes – I know I implied that. It was a snap reaction. I just want to know how you feel about it. If the news leaked out, it could damage the relationship we've built up with them. We did, after all, agree on a joint response to Crusoe. You set it up yourself. There was to be no unilateral action.'

‘There was to be no unilateral action to
destroy
Crusoe,' said Connors. ‘As for the joint response, Arnold has asked Chris Matson to head the Joint Study Group.'

‘Bob, we both know that group isn't going anywhere. Chris Matson's been hired to do a snow job.'

‘Not entirely. When the group is fully constituted, they'll be working on the problem of the fade-out. It will do whatever we want it to do. The only thing they won't know about is Crow Ridge.'

‘Does Chris –?'

‘Yes, he's been fully briefed. We have no security problem there.'

The President still looked troubled. ‘There still remains the danger that if the Russians find out we have broken this agreement, it throws into question the integrity of the other agreements we've arrived at, and to which you've contributed. I'm not just thinking about the progress on nuclear weapons and the new trade deals, there's also the whole China thing. I don't want to risk destroying all that. We still have a long way to go before we achieve the goals I outlined in my inauguration speech. I know you wrote it for me but it wasn't just hot air.'

‘I'm aware of that.' Connors took a deep breath. ‘But I believe that if we told the Russians where we think Crusoe is now, we might put the lives of several millions of Americans at risk.'

The President looked at Connors for what seemed a long time. ‘For someone not prone to exaggeration, that's a pretty dramatic statement. Would you like to qualify it?'

‘Yes. I believe our original motivation in holding back news of a landing inside America was to try and give ourselves a head start on any alien technology – and especially the processes that caused the jamming on our radar, which we originally attributed to Crusoe's motor. There were other peripheral considerations, including the remote possibility of engaging in a dialogue as ambassadors of a free society, but the main thrust of our thinking was directed towards exploiting any technological advantage to be gained by Crusoe's presence in the USA.'

‘I remember our conversations. Go on.'

‘That decision was reached before last Friday's breakdown. None of us had anticipated a prolonged jamming of the radar frequencies – or the progressive fade-out of radio transmissions. We're now faced with an escalating open-ended communications problem, the only identifiable source of which is Crusoe. There may still be a command module in orbit, but without radar we have no way of knowing. Crusoe is our only point of reference, and unless we can find some way to switch him off, his presence, here in America, now constitutes a massive liability.'

‘But the communications breakdown is worldwide,' said the President. ‘The Russians have exactly the same problems.'

‘That's true. But just suppose Crusoe
is
the cause of this problem, and we don't manage to find a way to
switch him off. If the Russians
knew
where he was, they might decide to try and switch him off without asking us.'

‘You mean by a nuclear missile strike?'

‘We know they still have contingency plans for a preemptive strike against the Chinese nuclear production and research installations. If they're prepared to risk war to remove the threat of a future Chinese nuclear-rocket attack, they might consider a strike on Crow Ridge. Indeed, if things got worse, if we became powerless, they might have no other option but to try.'

The President shook his head in stunned disbelief.

‘Would we hesitate to do something similar if we thought we were doing the world a favour?' asked Connors.

‘The logic is persuasive,' said the President. ‘It's just that the prospect is – well, unthinkable. Surely with this breakdown in the radar…'

‘You don't need radar to launch a missile strike. You only need it to defend yourself against one. It's a good enough reason for not telling the Russians where Crusoe is.'

‘But if we invited a team of their scientists over here to join the project,' suggested the President, ‘surely there would be no risk then. They wouldn't turn round and bomb their own people.'

‘If we allow them to participate they will know Crusoe's location. Supposing neither the Russians nor ourselves find out how to switch Crusoe off. Suppose we start arguing about what to do next, and reach an impasse – '

‘But, Bob, we'd have a negotiable situation. They might issue an ultimatum, but at least we could talk things over with them. People in the area would have a chance to move out. After all, we may be forced to take some drastic action against Crusoe ourselves. Bringing
the Russians in on the project would at least eliminate the possibility of their attacking Crow Ridge.'

It was Connors' turn to shake his head. ‘You have to remember that however good our relations have been, we're now in an entirely
new
situation – which may cause them to deteriorate rapidly. The fade-out has changed the whole balance of power. General Wills was right. We can't wage a conventional intercontinental land, sea, and air war under these conditions. But the Russians are still in the game. With their huge weight of military manpower they could still fight a non-electronic war. Those tank divisions lining the East German border would be in Bordeaux in under three days and they could roll up the Middle East while the Pentagon was still waiting for dispatches. The only chance we'd have of winning would be by a surprise, all-out nuclear missile attack. They can't defend themselves against that – '

‘And neither can we,' said the President.

‘Exactly,' said Connors. ‘There are only three things that can eliminate the possibility of a surprise Russian attack. One, maintain a low profile and keep making the right noises. Two, radar – and, at the moment, none of our equipment is operational. Three, keep Crusoe's existence and location a secret. If the Russians don't suspect anything, they are no danger to us
or
the project.'

The President's eyes flickered towards Connors, then past on to other points in the room as he considered his proposition. They came back to rest squarely on him. ‘Okay, Bob. We'll go it alone.'

Connors felt it was the right decision. Part of the deal he had brought back from Moscow was that in the event of a continuing fade-out, there were to be no infringements of each other's air space, no reconnaissance overflights, no extraterritorial troop movements or fleet reinforcements without prior notification. But since last
Friday, when the second fade-out had begun, the Russians had sealed off Eastern Europe. All borders were closed to traffic. All mail services had been suspended, all Western telephone links had been cut, all movements of embassy staff frozen. The sole remaining link was the ‘hot line' between the Kremlin and the White House. Apart from that, nobody could get in or out of Russia and nobody in the West knew what they were up to.